Showgirls

This article is about the film Showgirls (1995 film). For other uses, see Showgirl (disambiguation).

Showgirls (1995 film)
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul Verhoeven
Produced by	Lynn Ehrensperger Charles Evans[1] Mario Kassar Alan Marshall
Written by	Joe Eszterhas
Starring	Elizabeth Berkley Kyle MacLachlan Gina Gershon Glenn Plummer Robert Davi Alan Rachins Gina Ravera
Music by	David A. Stewart
Cinematography	Jost Vacano
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt Mark Helfrich
Studio	Carolco Pictures
Distributed by	MGM Distribution Co. United Artists
Release date(s)	September 22, 1995 (1995-09-22)
Running time	131 minutes 128 minutes (Edited cut)
Country	France United States
Language	English
Budget	$45 million
Box office	$37,702,961 (Worldwide)[2]

Showgirls is a 1995 American drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring former teen actress Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, and Gina Gershon. The film centres around a street-smart drifter who ventures to Las Vegas and climbs the seedy hierarchy from stripper to showgirl.

Produced on a then-sizeable budget of approximately $45 million, significant controversy and hype surrounding the film's amounts of sex and nudity preceded its theatrical release. In the United States, the film was rated NC-17 for "nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, some graphic language and sexual violence." Showgirls was the first and currently only NC-17 rated film to be given a wide release in mainstream theaters.^[3] Distributor United Artists dispatched several hundred staffers to theaters across North America playing Showgirls in order to assure that patrons would not be sneaking into the theater from other films, and to make sure the filmgoers were over the age of 17.

Despite a poor theatrical and critical consensus, Showgirls enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals ^[4] and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.^[5] For its video premiere, Verhoeven prepared an R-rated cut for rental outlets that would not carry NC-17 films. This edited version runs 3 minutes shorter (128 minutes) and deletes some of the more graphic footage. While it has been consistently ranked as one of the worst films ever made, Showgirls has become regarded as a cult classic and was released on Blu-ray in June 2010.^[6]

Verhoeven only made ​​two films in Hollywood after "Showgirls", both in the science fiction genre, before returning to the Netherlands. In 2006 he made his first Dutch movie after twenty years, called Black Book.

Plot

Nomi Malone, a mysterious young girl with the ambition to dance embarks on a journey to Las Vegas to become a showgirl in a high-class hotel show. There she meets Molly, a seamstress at the Stardust Hotel and the two quickly become good friends. She gets a job as a lap dancer at the seedy Cheetah Club but after a chance meeting with Cristal Connors, the star of Goddess, the current show at the hotel where Molly works, Nomi manages to secure an audition for a spot on the chorus line. However she soon realizes that fame comes with a price as her friendships, her morals and her soul are put to the test as she works her way up the ladder and eventually becomes the star of the show, stealing Cristal's part. She begins to wonder if all of her work was for nothing and if she can reclaim her life back before it is too late.

Cast

• Elizabeth Berkley as Nomi Malone/Polly Ann Costello
• Kyle MacLachlan as Zack Carey
• Gina Gershon as Cristal Connors
• Glenn Plummer as James Smith
• Robert Davi as Al Torres
• Alan Rachins as Tony Moss
• Gina Ravera as Molly Abrams
• Lin Tucci as Henrietta "Mama" Bazoom
• Greg Travis as Phil Newkirk
• Al Ruscio as Mr. Karlman
• Patrick Bristow as Marty Jacobsen
• William Shockley as Andrew Carver
• Michelle Johnston as Gay Carpenter
• Dewey Weber as Jeff
• Rena Riffel as Penny/Hope
• Melissa Williams as Julie
• Ungela Brockman as Angie
• Melinda Songer as Nicky
• Bobbie Phillips as Dee
• Carrie Ann Inaba as a Goddess Dancer
• Debra Ables as a Goddess Dancer

Reception

Showgirls' subject matter was relatively controversial. The film's gratuitous nudity, simulated sex, and $2 million screenplay^[7] (written by Joe Eszterhas, who had worked with director Paul Verhoeven before) did not lend itself to what might have been a provocative film. The 1998 film Burn Hollywood Burn, also written by Eszterhas, contains a reference to Showgirls as a "terrible" film.

Showgirls received a 12% 'Rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert wrote that Showgirls received "some bad reviews, but it wasn't completely terrible".^[8] Despite Ebert's qualification, the movie was heralded as one of cinema's worst.

The film was the winner of a then-record seven 1995 Golden Raspberry Awards (from a record 13 nominations) including Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Elizabeth Berkley), Worst Director (Paul Verhoeven), Worst Screenplay (Joe Eszterhas), Worst New Star (Elizabeth Berkley), Worst Screen Couple ("any combination of two people (or two body parts)") and Worst Original Song (David A. Stewart and Terry Hall for "Walk Into the Wind"). Verhoeven gamely appeared in person at the Razzies ceremony to accept his award for Worst Director; Showgirls would later win a record-setting eighth Razzie Award for Worst Picture of the Last Decade in 2000. It was soon tied with Battlefield Earth for winning the most Razzies in a single year, a record soon broken when I Know Who Killed Me won eight trophies in 2008, and was broken again when Battlefield Earth won a ninth Razzie in 2010.

Due to Showgirls' poor reception, Striptease, a 1996 film about nude dancers starring Demi Moore, had to be distanced from Showgirls in advertisements;^[9] Striptease nonetheless won the next year's Razzie Award for Worst Picture. Rena Riffel, who played Penny/Hope in Showgirls, also was cast in Striptease, as Tiffany Glass.

The term "Showgirls-bad" has been adopted by film critics and fans to refer to films considered guilty pleasures, or "so-bad-they're-good".^[10][11][12] To date Showgirls holds the honor of being the highest-grossing NC-17 production earning $20,350,754 at the North American Box Office.^[13]

Cult status

Since its release, the film has achieved cult status. According to writer Naomi Klein, ironic enjoyment of the film initially arose among those with the video before MGM capitalized on the idea. MGM noticed the video was performing well because "trendy twenty-somethings were throwing Showgirls irony parties, laughing sardonically at the implausibly poor screenplay and shrieking with horror at the aerobic sexual encounters".^[14]

In the United States, Showgirls is shown at midnight movies alongside such films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It is heralded as one of the best "bad movies", a camp classic in the vein of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Although the film was not successful when first released theatrically, it generated more than $100 million from video rentals ^[4] and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.^[15]

The rights to show the film on TV were eventually purchased by the VH1 network. However, because of the film's rampant and gratuitous nudity, a censored version was created with black bras and panties digitally rendered to hide all exposed breasts and genitals. Also, several scenes were removed entirely. Berkley refused to redub her lines,^{[citation needed]} so a noticeably different actress' voice can be heard on the soundtrack.

As revealed on the DVD release, a sign showing the distance to Los Angeles in the last shot of the film hinted at a sequel in which Nomi takes on Hollywood. The film was also ranked #36 on Entertainment Weekly magazine's "The Top 50 Cult Movies list.^[16]

Recent years have seen a reevaluation of the movie's merits. Critics such as Jonathan Rosenbaum and Charles Taylor, as well as filmmaker Jacques Rivette, have gone on the record defending Showgirls as a serious satire. Actor Patrick Bristow, who plays choreographer Marty, defended the film as "not that bad" except "that horrible rape scene."^{[citation needed]} Quentin Tarantino has stated that he enjoyed Showgirls, referring to it as the "only [...] other time in the last twenty years [that] a major studio made a full-on, gigantic, big-budget exploitation movie", comparing it to Mandingo.^[17]

Showgirls has been compared to the 1950 film All About Eve as a remake, update, or rip-off of that film.^[18]

Home media

In 2004, MGM released "The V.I.P. Edition" in a special boxed set containing two shot glasses, movie cards with drinking games on the back, a deck of playing cards, and a nude poster of Berkley with a pair of suction-cup pasties so viewers can play "pin the pasties on the showgirl." The DVD itself includes several bonus features, including a "how-to" tutorial for giving a lapdance hosted by real strippers, and a special "trivia track" feature that can be turned on or off. When left on, it adds humorous comments and factoids in the vein of VH1's Pop Up Video that relate to the scenes as they play out. It also includes "The Greatest Movie Ever Made: a commentary by David Schmader." In 2007, MGM re-released the V.I.P. edition DVD without the physical extras.

On June 15, 2010, MGM released a 15th Anniversary "Sinsational Edition" in a two-disc dual-format Blu-ray/DVD edition.^[19] This edition contains most of the same bonus features as the VIP edition DVD, except the trivia text feature has been reformatted. The NC-17 edit of the film is used.

The trivia track on the 2010 edition contains some errors, such as a statement that some of the dancers featured in the film were recruited from the XFL football league cheerleaders, an impossibility as the XFL wasn't formed until 2000.

The film is classified as R18+ in New Zealand and Australia for its violence, offensive language, and sex scenes.

References

1. ^ Charles Evans at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114436/business
3. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (July 21, 1995). "First Major Film With an NC-17 Rating Is Embraced by the Studio – New York Times". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DB1E31F932A15754C0A963958260. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Wiser, Paige. "The beauty of 'Showgirls'", Chicago Sun-Times, July 27, 2004
5. ^ "MGM's official page for Showgirls DVD". classic-web.archive.org. 2007-04-28. Archived from the original on 2007-04-28. http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20070428172642/http://www.mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=SHOWGRLS. Retrieved 2010-11-25. 
6. ^ Rochlin, Margy (May 25, 2008). "Step by Step, the Showgirl Must Go On". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/arts/dance/25roch.html. Retrieved 2009-03-03. 
7. ^ Maureen Dowd, "Bucks and Blondes: Joe Eszterhas Lives The Big Dream", New York Times, May 30, 1993.
8. ^ Ebert, Roger. "An Alan Smithee Film Burn Hollywood Burn", Chicago Sun-Times, February 27, 1998.
9. ^ Nashawaty, Chris. "Demi Goes Undercover: Moore's 'Striptease' Bumps into Trouble", Entertainment Weekly 04/26/96. Retrieved 16 August 2006.
10. ^ "Anonymous review of ''Catwoman''". Porktartare.com. http://www.porktartare.com/sight/sight_reviews.html. Retrieved 2010-11-25. 
11. ^ "Anonymous review of ''Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows'' by". Exclaim.ca. http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid=5&csid1=390. Retrieved 2010-11-25. 
12. ^ Sternbergh, Adam. "Springtime for the Undulating Curve of Shifting Expectations!" New York Magazine March 26, 2006
13. ^ "Domestic Grosses by MPAA Rating – NC-17". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/mpaa.htm?page=NC-17&p=.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-16. 
14. ^ Klein, Naomi, No Logo, Vintage Canada Edition, 2000, p. 79.
15. ^ "MGM's official page for Showgirls DVD". classic-web.archive.org. 2007-04-28. Archived from the original on 2007-04-28. http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20070428172642/http://www.mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=SHOWGRLS. Retrieved 2010-11-25. 
16. ^ "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83". Entertainment Weekly. September 3, 2008. http://www.filmsite.org/cultfilmsew2.html. Retrieved 2008-09-04. 
17. ^ Udovitch, Mim (1998). "Mim Udovitch/1996". In Peary, Gerald. Quentin Tarantino: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 172–173. ISBN 1578060516. 
18. ^ "Showgirls Review - Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension". Jabootu.com. http://www.jabootu.com/acolytes/brandiweed/showgirls.htm. Retrieved 2010-11-25. 
19. ^ "Showgirls 15th Anniversary Blu-ray Announced". April 12, 2010. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4424. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 

• Parish, James Robert (2006). Fiasco – A History of Hollywood’s Iconic Flops. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 359 pages.. ISBN 978-0-471-69159-4. 

External links

• Official website
• Showgirls at the Internet Movie Database
• Showgirls at AllRovi
• Showgirls at Box Office Mojo
• Showgirls at Rotten Tomatoes

Awards
Preceded by Color of Night	Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture 16th Golden Raspberry Awards	Succeeded by Striptease